Responsibilities
by Mokushi Ryuu
Summary: Harry questions Dumbledore's actions


Another attempt to get the engine running. None of my other stories are working with me and that makes me frustrated!

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"Five years ago, then," continued Dumbledore, as though he had not paused in his story, "you arrived at Hogwarts, neither as happy nor as well nourished as I would have liked, perhaps, yet alive and healthy. You were not a pampered little prince, but as normal a boy as I could have hoped under the circumstances. Thus far, my plan was working well." (Rowling, 2003)

"Yo-your plan? What plan?" Harry asked, interrupting Dumbledore.

"Hmm? Oh, my plan to keep you safe my boy." Dumbledore said, looking at Harry for the first time.

"Define safe." Harry ordered, throat constricting, strangling what ever words could have followed the two he managed to grind out.

"Safe-? Safe as in alive, healthy. Safe as in not dead, my dear boy." Dumbledore said, his tone suggesting that perhaps Harry was overwhelmed by the night and needed a lie down.

"And what gave you the right?" Harry asked, hands clenching into fists. "What gave you the right to leave me there?"

"There was no on else. No magical could have taken you in; what was to stop a death eater from getting custody over you? And the only muggles with any legal right to you were the Dursley's. What-"

"No, what gave _you_ the right to decide." Harry asked, taking a half-step forwards.

"Your parents trusted me-" Dumbledore started.

"Sirius trusted you too!" Harry cut him off. Dumbledore's face fell.

"Yes, yes he did."

"So besides them trusting you, what gave you the right to drop me off at the Dursley's, not even taking the time to ask them to take me in? What gave you the right to leave me on the doorstep like a fucking bottle of milk?" Harry thundered. The glass in the window panes rattled as did the objects on the shelves around the office. "What position of authority did their trust give you over me?"

Dumbledore was silent, an odd feeling niggling in his chest. He finally spoke.

"They charged me with looking out for your safety." Dumbledore admitted.

"Then how come I did even see you until I got here? Where were you, what I was growing up locked in a cupboard under the stairs? Where were you then, when my uncle broke my arm twice? Where were you when my aunt cracked my skull with a frying pan because, at six years old, I burned the breakfast she forced me to cook for the whole family? Where were you when my uncle cheered my cousin on as he beat the hell out of me on a near daily basis? Where the fuck were you!" Harry screamed. "If my parents charged you with my safety, then you failed, because _you_ placed me in danger!"

"Harry-!" Dumbledore started, rising to his feet.

"No! No, you abandoned me there, didn't bother to check up on me, and then you drag me back into this world unprepared for ANYTHING!" Harry raged. "You drug me back and threw me to the wolves, still not protecting me!"

Dumbledore had the good sense to drop his gaze from Harry's.

"You assumed authority over my life, and then when I needed you the most, you abandoned me. Not one, not twice, but every single fucking time I needed you, you vanished. And then, to top it all off; the one person, the only person in the world who could have given me the love and affection I _needed_, you moved heaven and earth to keep us apart. You allowed Mrs. Weasley to take over his house and treat him like dirt because you had him convinced that I loved her like a Mother and that any friction between them would send me away from him."

"No! Harry, that's not true!" Dumbledore protested.

"What am I supposed to think? I can only work with the evidence I get and am given! I saw how she treated Sirius! I saw how you sat back and did nothing as she ran the house like it was hers and she had any right to tell me what to do!"

"Harry, Mrs. Weasley-"

"Is not my Mother, will _never_ be my Mother in any way, shape or form! I am not so starved for affection that I am blind to her faults! I know she was told to look for me on the platform! I know Ron was asked to seek me out and befriend me! I know _someone_ keeps telling Ginny to get closer to me, to work her way into my trust. I am not an idiot, and I am not as blind as you'd like me to be!"

"Harry, please-"

"No. You don't get to ask of me anything. Not until you've answered this one question; since you assumed responsibility of me, and you were one of the only people in the wizarding world to know where I lived, how did everyone and all of their children know what I looked like? Why are there books written about me? Where is my fan-mail? Why haven't you protected me from the abuse in the press? Why didn't you even bother to check up on me at least once? Take your pick, but we don't proceed until one or all of those questions are answered. And for once in your life, don't you dare dismiss me like you have in the past. If you want anything from me, you will answer me."

Dumbledore sighed, visibly defeated. He dropped into the chair behind his desk and put his face in his hands. Harry waited. Finally, Dumbledore looked up and sighed. He answered the easiest and most obvious question.

"They know what you look like, because I told them." he said. "I did not prevent the rampant abuse of your name because I wanted the people and the future generation to have hope, to remember your parents sacrifice. A mail re-directing ward was placed on you and all of your mail from unknown or unapproved sources has been sent to a vault in Gringotts. As for why I did not protect your name in the press; I have no reason, I just didn't." Dumbledore said, being more honest than he had been in decades.

"I-I did check up on you. In order to keep for safe, I erased all complaints made against the Dursley's and threatened them for hurting you."

One by one his trinkets exploded until the last one burst and all of the windows shattered, rushing out into the night sky to rain down on the ground below his office like dangerous diamonds.

"I see." Harry said, eerily calm despite the spectacular display of temper by his magic. "You'll understand if I never trust or speak to you again, yes?"

Dumbledore nodded as Harry whipped around and calmly walked out of his office, his magic floating around him in a smoky haze, obscuring his figure in a cloud.

Rowling, J. K. (2003). _Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix._ Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic (US).


End file.
